(Press-News.org)
TORONTO, October 23, 2023 –This year, Canada saw the worst wildfire season in its history, with fires destroying homes, displacing thousands of residents, and burning the largest area since contemporary records began in 1983. Much of this damage to communities could be reduced with better wildfire preparedness – but wildland urban interface (WUI) communities often face significant barriers in implementing these improvements, according to a study by York University’s Disaster and Emergency Management researchers.
According to the study, Determinants of residential wildfire mitigation uptake: A scoping review, 2013–2022, published in the Fire Safety Journal, there are many residential wildfire mitigation and educational programs to protect residential communities from wildfires and to help prevent related disasters.
“Unfortunately, knowing how to protect and mitigate the risk to WUI communities from wildfire is not sufficient,” says Professor Eric B. Kennedy in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, who co-authored the study. “Understanding what will lead to adoption of prevention measures is a high-priority issue to better prepare for future wildfire seasons.”
These kinds of studies – known as scoping reviews – help to identify patterns and consensus in scientific research. Kennedy’s co-author and York graduate Sarah Cowan presented the results today at the 14th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science, IAFSS2023, held in Tsukuba, Japan. She highlighted that based on their review of 78 academic journal articles published in the last decade, several individual and social factors that contribute to a lack of preparedness were identified.
“We found a number of things that might help to increase wildfire preparedness. For example, many studies that we reviewed documented how the lack of money, time, resources or physical ability can impair the ability to make improvements to a property,” highlights wildfires researcher Kennedy.
“For instance, many of the home improvements can be expensive, and if you don’t have the money, financial support, or even support from your insurance company with incorporating improvements during rebuilding, it can be really challenging to make a difference. Same thing if we have an aging population. Cutting back vegetation or emptying and cleaning your eavestroughs can be physically demanding.”
The authors saw a pattern in how some residential organizations can negatively impact wildlife preparedness.
“Studies also showed that rules and norms set by some homeowners’ associations can sometimes make properties more vulnerable and more likely to burn,” says Kennedy. “For instance, if they were trying to preserve certain esthetics, they might use materials that burn more easily or capture embers from nearby fires.”
He adds that homeowners’ associations and municipalities should ensure building codes are in line with best practices to prevent such disasters.
“There really is an opportunity to broaden out the locations where these studies are being done. We need more research with more communities to help us understand how to develop solutions that can work across diverse contexts,” Kennedy observes.
The authors also note that a majority of the studies on this topic have been done in Australia, Canada and the US.
York University is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. York's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. York’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.
Media Contact: Gloria Suhasini, York University Media Relations and External Communications, 647-464-4354, suhasini@yorku.ca
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A new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances, 10.29026/oea.2023.230039 discusses diffraction-limited visible imaging for large aperture telescopes.
The deformable mirror used in adaptive optics can change its surface to instantly correct the static wavefront aberration of the optical system and atmospheric turbulence wavefront disturbance. This allows the optical system to automatically adapt to changes in the environment and maintain optimal performance. High-resolution astronomical observation, laser atmospheric transmission, and biomedical imaging all make extensive use ...
Texas A&M University is joining a multi-university team on a major research project to track objects orbiting the moon. The Air Force Research Laboratory is awarding up to $5 million over five years for the Space University Research Initiative (SURI).
“The SURI is an outstanding initiative to train our next-generation workforce. We look forward to carrying out creative research aimed at addressing astronautical challenges in cislunar space,” said Dr. Manoranjan Majji, an associate professor and Josey Family Foundation Faculty Fellow in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at ...
Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 23 October 2023
Annals of Internal Medicine Tip Sheet
@Annalsofim
Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization ...
In 2021, a team of University of Arizona astronomers suggested that a recently discovered near-Earth asteroid, Kamo`oalewa, could be a chunk of the moon. Two years after the striking discovery, another UArizona research group has found that a rare pathway could have enabled this to happen.
So far, only distant asteroids from beyond the orbit of Mars have been considered a source of near-Earth asteroids, said Renu Malhotra, Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences and a senior author on the paper.
"We are now establishing that the moon is a more likely source ...
A new study by University of Iowa researchers finds that rare lung cells known as pulmonary ionocytes facilitate the absorption of water and salt from the airway surface. This function is exactly the opposite of what was expected of these cells and may have implications for cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease.
Five years ago, scientists reported the unexpected discovery that ionocytes—a cell type commonly found in fish gills and frog skin—are also present in the lining of human lungs and airways. These pulmonary ionocytes were particularly interesting to CF researchers because although they only account for about 1% of all the cells in the airway ...
ORLANDO, Oct. 23, 2023 – Researchers from the University of Central Florida, University of Texas at Dallas and Vanderbilt University have received a three-year, $927,203 grant for advancing future quantum education by using virtual reality (VR) and machine learning to identify and address misconceptions regarding quantum information science (QIS).
The U.S. National Science Foundation-funded project started in August 2023 and leverages QubitVR, a quantum-education VR application previously developed ...
In exploratory analyses of results from the SWOG S1801 trial in patients with stage III-IV resectable melanoma, researchers saw a major pathologic response in more than half of surgical specimens taken from patients who had been treated with neoadjuvant (pre-operative) pembrolizumab.
These and other results of the analyses are presented as a proffered paper (Abstract LBA48) at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2023 in Madrid, Spain, on Monday, October 23, by Sapna P. Patel, MD, chair of the SWOG melanoma committee and associate professor of melanoma medical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Patel is principal investigator ...
The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) today announced the 2023 class of NYSCF – Robertson Investigators, welcoming three outstanding stem cell researchers into the NYSCF Innovator community.
The NYSCF – Robertson Stem Cell Investigator Awards support promising early career scientists whose cutting-edge research holds the potential to accelerate treatments and cures through the NYSCF – Robertson Stem Cell Investigator Awards.
The awards provide unrestricted seed funding – $1.5 million over five years – for scientists who have established their own, ...
Researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (NJIT-CSTR) have captured the Oct. 14 solar eclipse in a way never seen before — recording the first radio images of an annular eclipse’s famous “ring of fire” effect.
The eclipse was partially visible to much of the continental U.S. for several hours that Saturday, though the full “ring of fire” effect was only visible for less than five minutes, and only for those within its 125-mile-wide path of annularity.
However, the new observations of the radio Sun’s eclipse — ...
MISSOULA – The National Institutes of Health recently awarded a $12.3 million contract to the University of Montana to develop a novel vaccine adjuvant for use in a tuberculosis vaccine. Adjuvants are substances that boost the effectiveness of vaccines.
The five-year award went to UM’s Center for Translational Medicine and its partners. The contract is titled “Development of UM-1098: A Novel Synthetic Th17 Inducing Adjuvant and Delivery System.”
“The development and clinical evaluation of safe and effective ...
